Presteigne & The Great War

This project, running throughout the four centenary years , is collecting and researching memories of the Great War’s impact on the town of Presteigne and its immediate area. The results will be saved at The Judge’s Lodging as a record for the future.

Small displays, highlighting different aspects of the war's impact will accompany the work. There are FREE to visit. Text from these exhibitions will continue to be available after their display, so you may visit and catch up on an topics you may have missed.

May - Sept 2015 Napoleon & Powys - the focus will shift, in this bicentenary year of Waterloo, to those soldiers from Presteigne who served in the 'first' Great War, as the Napoleonic Wars were called until World War One.

How can you help?

Get hunting and asking! Few households in Presteigne would have been left unaffected by this event. We need you to come to us with any information, photographs or documents you may have in your family, or from friends, so we can take note of the details. Just drop in, call or email us.

For families who had members that served, we are creating individual cards for each soldier — any information you have on them, however little, will help and they will be added to a growing reference collection. All cards will be kept on display for people in Presteigne to view any time.

Featured soldiers

Cards have currently been prepared for the following soldiers and are on display. Do come and read about the lives of these brave men. Do not hesitate to contact us if you would like to know more about any of these men and cannot get to us. Please do tell us if you have any further information or photographs of anyone who served from the Presteigne area, so we can ensure they are properly represented in our archive for the future. This list will continue to grow as more research is done, but currently contains all names shown on Presteigne's War Memorial:

Strange But True

Test it on the servants of course! That's what happened in 1860 at The Judge's Lodging, when gas lighting was put into the basement and not the Judge's rooms. They wanted to see if they got sick from the fumes. The servants were fine - that's why we got the lights working again.